| Topic |
Geography |
Source |
| Percent of LOTE speakers and the foreign born |
nation, state, county, city |
Census Bureau's "Quick Facts," available on census.gov home page |
| Home speakers of a language other than English (39 languages/ groups included) |
from Nation to census tract (look up your census tract by typing in an address) |
Table B16001 (Language Spoken at Home by Ability to Speak English). Quick version: start at American Fact Finder and follow instructions. For more details, see Tutorial #1. Table B16001 (Language Spoken at Home by Ability to Speak English). Quick version: start at the American Community Survey's data portal and follow instructions.
|
| Foreign Born population |
same as above |
Table B05006 (Place of Birth for the Foreign-born Population): Over 108 countries listed. To find the table, Start at the American Community Survey's data portal and type in the table #. |
| Info on Speakers of languages not listed in Table B16001 |
nation, state, + District of Columbia only |
Table 1 (Detailed Language Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Older by States). 300+ languages listed. Available on this page; click on "Detailed Tables." |
| Sorting Table B16001 from the largest to the smallest number of speakers |
from Nation to census tract |
See Tutorial #2. |
Notes
1. The source for all tables, except for "Quick Facts" and Table 1, is the American Community Survey data portal.
2. When you search for a table, you can choose from 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year estimates. The 5-year estimate has 2 advantages:
a) it's the only one you can use if you're looking for info on geographies smaller than about 300,000 persons, and b) it's considered the most accurate of all estimates.
3. Choose as many geographies as you want and you can compare across geographies (e.g., U.S., Illinois, Cook County, and Chicago).
4. To look up a census tract, go to the American Community Survey data portal and choose the "Geographies" menu on the left side of the page. Type in an address and you'll get information that includes a census tract. You can use this census tract as a geography when you search for B16001 and other tables.
Other Resources
1. U.S. Census Bureau Home Page
2. Census Bureau's Language Use Page. This page offers links to other worthwhile tables and reports.
3. American Community Survey's reports on the foreign born, including The Newly Arrived Foreign Born Population of the U.S.
4. State Departments of Education. Some of them, including California's Dataquest, provide useful data and others do not. It's worth checking for your state.
5. The Pew Hispanic Center has an excellent web page with data on people of Hispanic origin in the U.S.
Please contact me with suggestions and questions: sbauckus@international.ucla.edu